Great example, terrible image.: General Failure

The caption would work much better as a quote, honestly.

As for the image, it doesn't show anything on its own. Hell, at first glance, anyone who doesn't know Futurama might actually find him to be competent.

Hm, was this one chosen by a previous IP? I vaguely think it was. Not promising though, so I'm not pulling it down. Not a fan though.

Maybe a picture of Zap Branigan holding up his own "Zap Branigan's Big Book of War" or something. Maybe a pic of him flying that orbiting restaurant. "Ahh, she flies like a steakhouse, but handles like a bistro!"

Or maybe when he finally actually does screw up so bad that he's dishonorably discharged from the Doo P military.

I think we might have had a previous IP thread about replacing this one, but it ended inconclusively?

Actually, I think the image we've got would work fine, if we could zoom in on a part of it. Zap's ridiculous battle plan can just barely be seen right now, but if we focused in on it and cut out some extraneous background elements (like Kiff), we'd have a good picture of Zap standing next to some tactically stupid nonsense, just as planned.

edited 12th Feb '11 10:33:01 AM by SemiCasualObserver

Zoomed in version:

That...doesn't help. At all.

It's a bad image; zooming won't fix that.

edited 12th Feb '11 10:33:45 AM by ThePope

Hmmm... Yours is clearer, but you can't see the whole board anymore. Decisions, decisions...

EDIT: That's twice I've been ninja'd now. Well, if the "Zap w/ Plan" image won't work, I'm out of ideas. There just aren't many ways to convey that a person is both a general and a poor leader with the same shot.

edited 12th Feb '11 10:39:28 AM by SemiCasualObserver

Surely the little stick figures and the "Boom" indicate that his strategy is less than brilliant.

no, just that he can't draw.

Yeah, tons of geniuses are terrible artists. If someone is hyper-specialized in the left side of the brain, the right side tends to falter.

Well other than a drawn-up blatantly silly battle plan, General Failure is probably unpicturable. (I googled every variation of "Incompetent Military Commander" I could think of, but mostly got pictures of Barack Obama...)

The fact that he has no pants while presenting the plan helps a bit.

Quark's plans from Ratchet And Clank 3 might work but I can't find one.

Or Klink from Hogans Heroes.

edited 12th Feb '11 11:22:35 AM by Raso

That's just the uniform. Has nothing to do with being a bad planner.

I would say something regarding Abbadon, or Indrick Boreale, but that's just Fan Myopia talking. They're both complete idiots with their plans, but there's really no way I can think of that proves it because their plans are only shown by talking. And only a 40K fan would know why they're idiots.

[1]? (boy images are hard to find of it.)

edited 12th Feb '11 12:55:39 PM by Raso

Yeah, we can't just show that the character is a general. We also have to show them sucking at it.

edited 12th Feb '11 1:02:40 PM by troacctid

I honestly don't get the image. It looks like some guys being confused or arguing, which I don't think describes the trope very well.

Without a manga or webcomic example that has discussion of the character's foolishness, I don't know how this is going to get pictured adequately.

edited 27th Feb '11 10:11:06 AM by Willbyr

Maybe a picture of Zap Branigan holding up his own "Zap Branigan's Big Book of War" or something.

That's on Big Book of War.

Why isnt this up there?

Cause it's just pointing to a work rather than showing it is both big and a book.

I still don't understand what's wrong with a battle plan consisting of stick figures, triangles, and a "Boom!" word bubble.

That's a funny way to describe the battle plan, but good and bad plans could both be shown this way. The only thing that says that it's a bad plan is that it comes from Zap Brannigan, and if you don't know who he is, then it's meaningless. In football broadcasting, John Madden frequently illustrated clever strategies using stick figures, arrows, and the word "BOOM!", so that alone does not indicate a bad plan.

I'm sorry, but I think the zoomed-in image is perfect. Yes, I suppose, hypothetically, it could be an illustration for a good battle plan. But I think that's getting a bit nit-picky and perfectionist. Coming across this image I wouldn't for a second think "gee, this must be an illustration for a trope about brilliant tactical geniuses and their well-thought-out, sure-to-succeed plans!" That'd be like coming across an image of Charlie Chaplin and thinking "hmm, he's wearing a nice hat and suit, and isn't smiling... I guess he must be a straight-faced, successful, humourless business executive!"

I think the zoomed-in battle-plan image is far preferable to no image, at the least.